US says Lebanon ceasefire close but no agreement yet

The United States is pushing as hard as it can to get to a truce in Lebanon but cautioned that an agreement has not yet been achieved, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

Miller was speaking at a regular news briefing amid signs of a diplomatic breakthrough. Four senior Lebanese sources said that U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron were expected to announce a ceasefire in Lebanon between armed group Hezbollah and Israel within 36 hours.

"We don't believe we have an agreement yet. We believe we're close to an agreement. We believe that we have narrowed the gaps significantly but there are still steps that we need to see taken, but we hope that we can get there," Miller said.

The U.S. has pushed for a deal between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel to end the fighting that erupted in October 2023 in parallel with Israel's war against Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza. The conflict in Lebanon has drastically escalated over the last two months.

Signs of a diplomatic breakthrough were accompanied by heavy Israeli airstrikes on Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, as Israel pressed the offensive it launched in September after almost a year of cross-border hostilities.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office declined to comment on reports that both Israel and Lebanon had agreed to the text of a deal. But the senior Israeli official told Reuters that a cabinet meeting Tuesday was intended to approve the text.